Henry Echlin (soldier)
Henry Echlin, Laird of Pittadro, was a Scottish soldier and Constable of Edinburgh Castle during the Marian civil war. Some sources give his first name as Andrew.[1]
Career
[edit]
He was a son of William Echlin of Pittadro and Alison Melville, a daughter of James Melville of Raith. Echlin was known by his territorial designation as the "Laird of Pittadro", a property about a mile north of Dalgety Bay in Fife, Scotland.[2]
He was a cousin of William Kirkcaldy of Grange who held Edinburgh Castle for Mary, Queen of Scots between 1570 and 1573. He was involved in Grange's plans and strategy, and Grange told him and Robert Melville of hopes of support from France. Echlin was also a spokesman for Grange, negotiating at the castle gate and at Holyrood Palace before an English force came to Edinburgh to besiege the castle.[3][4] His brother Patrick Echlin also remained in the castle.[5] On 27 May 1573, Echlin, Grange, and Robert Melville abseiled down the castle walls to negotiate a surrender.[6]
At the end of the siege in May 1573, the castle surrendered to William Drury who took the leaders to Leith.[7] Grange sent Echlin to negotiate the return of the Honours of Scotland (the crown, sceptre, and sword) to Regent Morton. He also offered Morton the remaining jewels of Mary, Queen of Scots, which were not earmarked as pledges for loans.[8]
Echlin and Grange were friends of James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, Regent of Scotland, who had been assassinated in January 1570. Echlin was one of his "executors nominate". The settlement of Moray's estate became an issue when his widow, Annas or Agnes Keith refused to give some of Mary's jewels, including the "Great H of Scotland", to Regent Morton.[9] She claimed the jewels as recompense for her husband's debts contracted in public service.[10] In one of her offers to Morton to resolve their quarrel, she proposed listing these debts even though the executors-nominate, including Echlin, Laird of Pittadro, had not accepted them at first.[11]
After his death, in 1629 when the courtier Robert Kerr of Ancram recommended Echlin's son David for employment by the Earl of Carlisle, he wrote that his father was the "worthy laird of Pittadro, was one of the last men that stuck to Queen our master's grandmother, and was honoured and esteemed for it all the better by King James".[12]
Marriage and family
[edit]Henry Echlin married Grissel Colville, a daughter of Robert Colville of Cleish. Their children included:[13]
- William Echlin of Pittadro, who married Margaret Henderson, a daughter of James Henderson of Fordell
- David Echlin, poet and physician to Anne of Denmark and Henrietta Maria
- Robert Echlin, Bishop of Down and Connor (1576–1635)
References
[edit]- ^ George R. Hewitt, Scotland under Morton, 1572–80 (Edinburgh: John Donald, 1982), p. 27: John Robert Echlin, Genealogical Memoirs of the Echlin Family (Scott & Ferguson, 1882), p. viii.
- ^ Memoirs of the ancient familie of the Echlins of Pittadro, by George Crawford, 1747 (not dated), p. 7
- ^ William K. Boyd, Calendar of State Papers relating to Scotland, 1571-1574, vol. 4 (Edinburgh, 1905), pp. 546, no. 620, 619 no. 728.
- ^ Aeneas James George Mackay, Historie and cronicles of Scotland, 2 (Edinburgh: STS, 1899), p. 300
- ^ Thomas Thomson, Memoirs of his own life by James Melville of Halhill (Edinburgh, 1827), p. 254.
- ^ Harry Potter, Edinburgh Under Siege 1571–1573 (Tempus, 2003), pp. 139–140, (calls him "Pitarrow"): William Fraser, The Melvilles, earls of Melville, and the Leslies, earls of Leven, 1 (Edinburgh, 1890), p. 100.
- ^ Memoirs of the ancient familie of the Echlins of Pittadro, by George Crawford, 1747 (not dated), p. 10
- ^ Joseph Robertson, Inventaires de la Royne Descosse (Edinburgh: Bannatyne Club, 1863), p. cliii: William K. Boyd, Calendar of State Papers relating to Scotland, 1571-1574, vol. 4 (Edinburgh, 1905), p. 585 no. 691.
- ^ Jade Scott, "Mary Queen of Jewels", History Today, 70:10 (October 2024), pp. 59–60.
- ^ Amy Blakeway, Regency in Sixteenth-Century Scotland (Boydell, 2015), p. 90.
- ^ William K. Boyd, Calendar of State Papers relating to Scotland, 1571-1574, vol. 4 (Edinburgh, 1905), pp. 53–54 no. 47: Samuel Cowan, Mary, Queen of Scots and Who Wrote the Casket Letters, 2 (London, 1901), p. 156
- ^ Charles B. Gullans, The English and Latin Poems of Sir Robert Ayton (Edinburgh: STS, 1963), pp. 76, 79: John Bruce, Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, of the Reign of Charles I, 3 (London, 1859), p. 483, offers paraphrase.
- ^ Memoirs of the ancient familie of the Echlins of Pittadro, by George Crawford, 1747 (not dated), p. 12
External links
[edit]- Michael Pearce, "The Jewels Mary Queen of Scots left behind" doi:10.13140/RG.2.2.34957.61920